Stella POV
For three days, I kept myself locked in my apartment, the heavy curtains drawn until the rooms held the close, stagnant air of a crypt.
I spent hours curled on the bed, my hands wrapped around my flat stomach.
I was aware of the tiny life growing inside me. It did not feel like a miracle; it felt like a fuse being lit.
When I finally turned my phone back on, the screen flared to life with notifications.
Forty-seven missed calls. Ninety-three encrypted messages.
All from Preston.
The texts had started as frantic apologies. But as the hours passed, they morphed into cold commands.
The very last message had arrived only an hour ago.
"Tomorrow is the surgery, right? Do not make a mistake you cannot survive."
A tremor passed through me. I threw the phone across the bed as if it had burned my skin.
The next morning, I sat frozen in the waiting area of the clinic.
The fluorescent lights buzzed relentlessly above my head, casting a sickly pallor over the walls.
My palms were sweating so much I could feel the dampness seeping through the fabric of my jeans.
Suddenly, the heavy glass doors of the clinic flew open.
My mother ran inside, gasping for air.
Her usually immaculate hair was a mess, and her eyes were red, swollen, and wild with panic.
She scanned the room, spotted me in the corner, and rushed over, her manicured hands gripping my shoulders.
"Stella, you cannot do this," she pleaded, her voice cracking. "You have to stop."
"Mom, what are you doing here?" I asked, a cold weight settling in my stomach.
"Preston called me," she sobbed, her fingers digging painfully into my skin. "He told me you were here. He told me I had to stop you."
She dropped to her knees in front of my chair. "Please, Stella. Do not use this baby as a weapon against him."
I stared down at her, a cold dread creeping over me.
There was a raw, unfiltered terror in her eyes-a primal fear that had nothing to do with losing a grandchild.
"What did he do, Mom?" I demanded, my voice dropping to a harsh whisper. "Tell me."
She collapsed into the empty plastic chair next to me, burying her tear-stained face in her hands, which had begun to tremble.
"Your father's operations... they were hit last night," she choked out. "The Syndicate withdrew their protection. The illicit investors pulled all their cash out in a panic."
She looked up at me, her face pale and drawn. "We are facing ruin, Stella. The Commission is demanding a penalty we cannot possibly pay. They will kill him."
The sterile white walls of the clinic felt as though they were closing in, crushing the air from my lungs.
I stood up on unsteady legs. "I need to use the restroom," I told my mother numbly.
Without waiting for a response, I slipped past the front desk and pushed through the heavy metal fire door, stepping into the isolated stairwell.
The air in here was biting cold and smelled of damp concrete and bleach.
The cold light of the phone screen stung my eyes, my thumb too stiff to bend properly. I had to press three times before I finally hit the correct digit to unlock it. I dialed Preston's number.
He answered on the very first ring.
"Are you quite done throwing your tantrum?" his deep, smooth voice echoed through the speaker.
"Did you order the strike on my father's business?" I gritted out, my nails biting into my palm.
There was a brief pause, followed by the faint, distinct snick of a lighter flicking open.
He was smoking.
My hand, pressed against the cold steel of the fire door, felt bloodless. Preston only ever smoked when he was calculating his next kill.
"I simply stopped shielding him from the Commission's eyes," Preston replied, his tone infuriatingly calm. "You made it very clear you wanted to cut all ties with me, Stella. I am merely respecting your wishes."
"You are extorting me," I hissed, hot tears of rage blurring my vision. "You are holding a gun to my father's head!"
"I am giving you a choice, Stella," he corrected softly. "Keep the child. Stay by my side. Let me take care of you."
His voice dropped an octave, dripping with a dark promise. "Do that, and I will dispatch my men right now to secure your father's operations. I will pay his penalty to the Commission myself."
"And if I say no?" my voice broke.
"If you abort my heir," he said, the dangerous edge returning to his tone, "I have no obligation to protect an Associate who is no longer considered Family."
He let the silence stretch for a second. "He will face the Commission alone. And you know what they do to men who owe them money."
Hot tears finally spilled over. I tilted my head back, staring up at the harsh light bulb on the stairwell ceiling, fighting a losing battle to force them back.
"What about your wife?" I choked out, the words like poison in my mouth.
A heavy, suffocating silence stretched over the line.
"I will handle Serena and her faction," Preston finally said, his voice tight. "I just need time."
I closed my eyes, leaning my forehead against the freezing concrete wall.
The last ounces of fight drained out of me, leaving behind nothing but a hollow, aching shell.
I could not let my father be tortured and murdered because of my pride.
"Fine," I whispered, and once that word was spoken, I knew I could never wash the mire from my hands.
"Thank you, Stella."
"Do not thank me," I spat, my voice shaking with venom. "I hate you."
"You will understand eventually. It is the only way to survive in our world," he said smoothly, unfazed by my hatred. "Go home. My soldiers are already on their way to secure your father's laundromats."
The line went dead.
I lowered the phone, my hand moving instinctively to cradle my stomach, its slight tremble a betrayal of my resolve.
A bitter, broken smile stretched across my face in the empty stairwell.
He had said he would handle Serena. He had asked for time.
But as the reality of my golden cage settled over me, one damning truth echoed in my mind.
He had never once mentioned the word divorce.
And sitting there, alone in that stairwell, I realized—he wasn't just refusing to leave her.
He had never even considered it.
